SBI maxgain home loan account helps you earn more interest on savings by setting off high loan interest outgo. NRI need Power of attorney for closing maxgain account. Surplus amount withdrawal is allowed only after possession and full disbursement of loan. NRE account to maxgain OD account is one way, non-repatriable.

What is SBI Maxgain Home Loan Account?

An Over-Draft (OD) account that SBI (read any other bank that offers similar facility) opens up for the home loan customer.

Once loan is sanctioned, the loan amount is immediately transferred to this overdraft account.

Whenever you need to make a payment to the real estate builder (developer), the check is drawn by bank from this overdraft account in favor of the builder.

You, as a loan seeker pay interest ONLY on the amount that has been drawn from this OD account at any given point of time.

The negative balance visible in this account is total sanctioned home loan amount for you.

You DO NOT pay the interest on the complete balance in your OD account unless it has been disbursed.

sbi maxgain home loan account helps earn more interest than savings account if you plan carefuly

Withdraw surplus money from SBI Maxgain Home loan OD account?

Yes, but with a clause. SBI issues you the Cheque book and internet banking for this OD account only when the home (property) has been registered.

This means that you won’t be able to withdraw the extra money that you park in this account if you home loan is for an under-construction property.

Mine was the same case and hence could never withdraw it as my home is still under construction at the time of writing this article.

Till the time property is registered, money can be withdrawn only to make payments to the builder as per the construction linked plan. You can only deposit the money in it by way of pre-paying some of full part of the loan though.

Whenever you have a surplus savings in your any savings account, you can simply transfer it to this home loan OD account.

The normal savings account earns interest in the range of about 4-6%. Transferring money in to this OD account will save you interest on your pending home loan which would be somewhere in the range of 8-12%.

For example,

If you have 10,000 rupees extra sitting in your savings account. This would earn approximately INR 33.3 @4% P.A. for 1 month as interest.

If you transfer this amount to your Maxgain account, you would then GET INR 83.33 @10% P.A. for 1 month as interest.

A good difference of 83.33 – 33.33 = 50 rupees a month! That is why we say: “Money saved is money earned”

You would technically not receive this money from bank but this 83.33 would be the amount that you would NOT pay as interest on your home loan to bank for this particular month.

Hence, your savings on the loan interest can be counted as your income.

To add more benefit, this interest is NOT even taxed as it is your virtual income!

Do we earn interest on Maxgain account if the book balance is in positive?

No. There is no interest paid out if the balance is positive.

Positive book balance in Maxgain OD account means that you have paid back the total loan amount to bank. There is nothing DUE from your side to bank.

If you have pre-paid the full loan i.e. much before the initial time line, it is better to close the account and get the EMIs stopped.

You have to go and close it explicitly. SBI will NOT automatically stop the EMI deduction if your book balance turns positive by way of pre-paying.

How can the book balance in Maxgain OD account get positive? It should always be negative. Isn’t it?

Yes. You are right. The balance in Maxgain home loan account will mostly be negative till the time you have not re-paid it completely back to bank.

So, there is a possibility that you have pre-paid your due balance earlier than the complete loan tenure.

For example,

If I repay the complete amount within 4 years for a loan of 10 years and do NOT stop the EMI cycle, the bank would deduct the installment and deposit it in my OD account.

It would then start accumulating the positive balance.

How to close your Maxgain home loan account?

The only way to close the account is to re-pay the complete loan amount. The OD account is generally tagged to one of the SBI branch and this can be a completely different branch than the one sanctioned your home loan.

How can NRI close Maxgain home loan account?

If you are still in India and planning to leave soon, you would need a notarized Power of Attorney (registered POA is NOT required for bank matters) to help any of your friend or relative to close the home loan account on your behalf.

How to close Maxgain home loan OD account

Visit the branch (holding your OD account) in person . You can also send a person on your behalf holding your POA (Power of attorney).

Carrying POA is important as they will keep a copy of the POA for records.

Ask for the Maxgain home loan OD account closure form. You would also need to ask for the balance accrued interest to be paid till date for the account.

The interest accrued till date means the date when you actually close the loan.

For e.g.

Lets assume that your monthly interest is due on 1st of every month and bank debits it your account the same day. Now, if you are going for closure of your loan on 10th day of the month, the interest from current month’s 1st to 10th would not have been debited yet.

So, while closing the loan on 10th, bank would calculate interest for 10 days + the current outstanding loan. This will the amount you will pay and pay-off completely.

How I saved my money by paying lesser home loan Interest?

This concept certainly helps here when you have the facility of doubling up the benefits with Maxgain OD account. On one hand, you are paying lesser interest to bank on the total loan and on the other hand, you are earning more interest on your savings.

In my case, the eligibility just hovered around a total loan of 21 lakhs by all means. Hence, the EMI was set up for 240 months/Rs. 17000 per month.

Since, I could use the allowances like LTA and medical (part of my salary structure) which Bank did not consider for calculating loan limits, towards my savings, I was able to pre-pay an extra amount each month.

Also, the loan limits by bank are set keeping in mind the current salary levels of a person. The loan tenures generally span multiple years and your income stands a chance to increase. If your income increases, it should become easier for you to pre-pay more than what was set up bank earlier.

My advice is to pre-pay as much as you can, if you cannot use the same set of money for earning more than, what you are paying as interest on the loan.